For example you can buy bonds with different terms or

For example, you can buy bonds with different terms, or maturity dates. This approach, called a barbell strategy, involves investing roughly equivalent amounts in short-term and long-term bonds, weighting your portfolio at either end. That way, you can limit risk by having at least a portion of your total bond portfolio in whichever of those two subclasses is providing the stronger return.Alternatively, you can buy bonds with the same term but different maturity dates. Using this strategy, called laddering, you invest roughly equivalent amounts in a series of fixed-income securities that mature in a rolling pattern, perhaps every two years. Instead of investing $15,000 in one note that will mature in 10 years, you invest $3,000 in a note maturing in two years, another $3,000 in a note maturing in four years, and so on. This approach helps you manage risk in two ways:If rates drop just before the first note matures, you'll have to invest only $3,000 at the new lowerrate rather than the full $15,000. If rates behave in traditional fashion, they will typically go up again at some point in the ten-year span covered by your ladder.

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If you need money in the short term for either a planned or unplanned expense, you could use the amount of the maturing bond to meet that need without having to sell a larger bond in the secondary market.How Much Diversification?In contrast to a limited number of asset classes, the universe of individual investments is huge. Which raises the question: How many different investments should you own to diversify your portfolio broadly enough to manage investment risk? Unfortunately, there is no simple or single answer that is right for everyone. Whether your stock portfolio includes six securities, 20 securities, or more is a decision you have to make in consultation with your investment professional or based on your own research and judgment.In general, however, the decision will depend on how closely the investments track one another's returns—a concept called correlation. For example, if Stock A always goes up and down the same amount as Stock B, they are said to be perfectly correlated. If Stock A always goes up the same amount that Stock B goes down, they are said to be negatively correlated. In the real world,securities often are positively correlated with one another to varying degrees. The less positively correlated your investments are with one another, the better diversified you are.Building a diversified portfolio is one of the reasons many investors turn to pooled investments—including mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and the investment portfolios of variable annuities. Pooled investments typically include a larger number and variety of underlying investments than you are likely to assemble on your own, so they help spread out your risk. You do have to make sure, however, that even the pooled investments you own are diversified—for example, owning two mutual funds that invest in the same subclass of stocks won't help you to diversify.

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